IOHANNI WOLFGRAMM ON HEALING - AND CASTING OUT

 This is something I may have done only once with dozens of blessings - but I need to remember to incorporate this into the mix along with everything else I have gleaned from my study of Iohanni as the Church Healer.

While talking to my Tongan brother in the Ramada pool in St George (previous posts) about his FIL, he was very careful to pass this gem along to me.  And it may have been the thing that I needed to hear to reinforce what I have been queued into time and again from people I trust.  It was this:

Always cast any spirits out prior to performing a healing.  

Iohanni did this - and we never hear of it in our EQ manuals, etc but I believe this to be a critical thing.  Evil spirits will take advantage a rift of weakness within a person, whether it be a mental illness or a physical malady - or overt sin on our part which creates a "tear" in our spiritual "hide", if I may.  Like a parasite in the body, they need an in to get a foothold.  Typically, a healthy body can repel most invaders naturally.  But, say our kidneys, gut biome or endocrine system is not functioning as it should, this can create a natural chink in our armor where something can move in and get a foothold.  So it is with our spiritual weaknesses.  Things that sap our time or spiritual strength such as sin, lower our resistance to things in the spiritual realms and leave us vulnerable in similar fashion.

So, brothers (and sisters) - before healing, remember to command any evil in the name of Jesus to depart this person and their environment.  Lack of patience, overt sin, impure thoughts, etc will invite influences back over time (all of us experience some form of lapse over time), but casting out allows the afflicted enough time to get a jump on what afflicts them in a purely physical sense.

Here is an amalgamation of quotes that I gleaned off the interwebz that delves a little into the subject:

The Different Categories of Evil Spirits

Without exception, every single Latter-day Saint I have talked to originally thought that dev¡ls, dem0ns, unclean, and foul spirits were different words for the same type of ev¡l spirit. For those who have read the papers written by my wife and me, you know different. These papers can be downloaded here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HJI_U7ZvnRKa8CPedTxQmzofo4sXZO1D/view?usp=share_link and here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qb_eLR7V0gmsWvzq1I_gnn5-EQcBHojL/view?usp=share_link . For those who do not know the differences, I will go into it a bit more. There appear to be six main categories of ev¡l spirits.

Dev¡ls are dem0ns, dem0ns are dev¡ls (Mormon Doctrine, p 137), meaning that they are the same thing, just a different name for the same entity. They are the one-third part of our pre-existent brothers and sisters who rebelled against God. They did not keep their first estate and were cast out of Heaven. “Those thus cast out are denied bodies forever. They are sons of perdition, and with Lucifer, their father, they are in eternal opposition to all righteousness” (Mormon Doctrine, p 140). There will never be a second chance for them to try again because they rebelled with full knowledge, with eyes wide open and knew that they were in opposition to the plan of salvation.

The next two categories are unclean and foul spirits. These are the disembodied spirits of wicked people who died in their sins (Pratt, Key to the Science of Theology, p 121). “…No unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven,” (Alma 11:37) hence the designation, “unclean spirit.” Unclean and foul spirits are different in their malignancy or degree of ev¡l . “Clearly there are degrees of malignity and ev¡l  powers among the demons in hell. Just as there is a heavenly hierarchy so is there a satanic government that puts one ev¡l  spirit in charge of another; and just as there are degrees of righteousness and glory, so are there levels of lewdness and ev¡l ” (McConkie, Mortal Messiah: From Bethlehem to Calvary, Vol 3, p 73).

To the best of my understanding, it would seem that unclean spirits were wicked people in mortality but lacked the malignancy and maliciousness of those higher up in the s@tanic government. They were compelled to join the forces of S@tan (The Seer, Vol. 1, Oct 1853, p 156) through being tormented until they gave in. One afflicted man had an ev¡l  spirit cast out, but before it left, the man asked why it p0ssessed him. The unclean spirit answered, “If you knew the torment I should have been subjected to, had I refused to torment you, you would not ask the question” (Improvement Era, Volume 23, No. 2, Dec 1919, p 165).

Foul spirits are the worst to try and cast out. The Savior said that “this kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:29). Foul spirits are primarily mental illness spirits and “work mostly on the mental functions instead of the physical functions but affect the physical system unto death sometimes by tormenting the spirit of the person” (Autobiography and Journal of Priddy Meeks, Utah Historical Quarterly, 1942, Vol 10:145). This is backed up in the scriptures by the incident where a possessed young boy was brought to the apostles, but they were unable to cast out the foul spirit (Matt 17:14-21, Mark 9:17-29). It took the Savior to cast out the spirit. This is the only incident of casting out of ev¡l  spirits in which the spirit was named a foul spirit by the Savior (Mark 9:25). This same spirit also was called a mental illness spirit of lunacy (Matt 17:15).

The next category are familiar spirits and/or spirits of divination. Contrary to what some people teach, familiar spirits are not family spirits even though familiar is from the base word of family. A family spirit would probably be more accurately called an ancestral spirit. Familiar spirits are also spirits of divination (Acts 16:16-18) and associate with soothsayers, charmers, and spiritualists/spirit mediums who conduct séances (Mormon Doctrine p 529). An account of this is given in the Old Testament.

7 ¶ Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at En-dor.

8 And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee.

9 And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?

10 And Saul sware to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.

11 Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel.

(1 Samuel 28:7–11)

The witch of Endor was a spirit medium who consulted with spirits of divination that were familiar to her, which is the real reason for the term “familiar spirit.” This was expounded upon in the Millennial Star.

“The words of the prophets of Jerusalem or Ariel never spoke from the ground; their speech was never ‘low out of the dust.’ But the words of the prophets among the remnant of Joseph have spoken from the ground and their written “speech has whispered out of the dust. Isaiah declares that it shall be ‘as the voice of one that hath a familiar spirit.’ It was not to be the voice of a distant, vague, uncertain spirit but ‘a familiar spirit,’ one that could be familiarly understood, and that too, by the most ordinary capacity. The term familiar does not necessarily imply ev¡l as Mr. Paton would have the public suppose. There were many corrupt persons in ancient times who had not only a familiar but constant intercourse with ev¡l spirits and were possessed by them; and because of the constant familiarity of these spirits with those persons they possessed, they were frequently termed ‘familiar spirits.’ As was remarked above the term ‘familiar’ does not always imply ev¡l. Jesus was familiar with his disciples while to the world he was more distant and spoke to them in parables.  The Holy Ghost is a very familiar spirit in the tabernacles of his servants sometimes making familiar to them things that are not lawful to be uttered or written” (The Latter-Day Saints’ Millennial Star, Vol 11, No 8, April 15, 1949, p 116).

The next category are unclean dev¡l s (Luke 4:33). These are mentioned only one time in the scriptures and are more inferred as a category from the scriptures and the statements of Brigham Young. We’re inferring that these are the spirits of sons of perdition. As was previously mention no “unclean thing” can enter the Heaven, which indicates the spirit once had a physical body. Brigham Young said that “those who have sinned against the Holy Ghost will become angels of the Dev¡l, and must suffer the wrath of God” (JD 6:348).

The last category of ev¡l spirits are false spirits (D&C 50:2). These spirits probably are the single most dangerous group of ev¡l spirits (Key to the Science of Theology, p 123) because their whole purpose is to deceive. The use deception and lead people astray, especially the Latter-day Saints. False spirits are about as pernicious, malevolent, and sly as they possibly can get. Their malignant destructiveness simply cannot be understated. Remember that ev¡l spirits know everything that is possible to know about you. Just like the angels in Heaven keep notes on you, so do ev¡l spirits. They know everything you have ever read and said and done – every single thing – because you are surrounded and watched every moment of every day unless you regularly cast them away. Using this intimate knowledge of you, they will craft a package of deception specifically tailored to you and your prejudices, and unless you are eternally on guard, they will deceive you.

Of all the categories of ev¡l spirits, false spirits worry us the most.

Scott and Kylie Gillespie